OLD PASTURE LANDS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 877, 25 July 1910, Page 8

OLD PASTURE LANDS.

THEIR TREATMENT. At Hastings on Thursday /afternoon, Mr. G. de S. Boyliss, Fields Instructor for the North Island, lectured to about forty farmers oh "The Treatment of Old Pasture Lands." The arrangements were made by the Hawke's Bay A. and P. Society, and Mr.-E. D..D. Mlean presided. . . In introducing Mr. Baylis to the meeting (says a Napier exchange), the chairman said that no doubt many of those present could recall tho time when, the whole of Hawke's Bay was covered in fern and manuka. The district now included some'of tho richest pasture lands in the Dominion.

Mr. Baylis then gave his address, deal-, ing with his subject from a scientific standpoint as well as :from practical •knowledge, and in a manner which, made it interesting and instructive. In answer to questions, Mr. Baylis said that a moderate top dressing'of lime was usually beneficial, to old pasture, lands, especially so in. the. North Island, but it did not follow that a top dressing of lime alone was sure to give the best results. because ,tho land, ■ might require other manures with tho lime.

Mr. E. D. Collison said he found that ; a good blazing •' sun did a wonderful 'amount of good- to land. ■Mr. Baylis confirmed what Mr,. Oollison said, i Cultivation, he said, played a big part in the amount of production. given by land. He instanced a.case of where o man ploughed ground ih the autum a and some adjoining land in the spring. Both grounds were sowed at; the same timo with the . same bind of seed, but the results from • the land which was ploughed and allowed to remain exposed for the winter were twice as good as tne rpsulta from tho newly-ploughed ground.